Newspapers / The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, … / April 22, 1903, edition 1 / Page 1
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a: RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22. 1903. JOSIAH WILLIAM BAILEY, Editor. VOLUME 68, NUMBER 42.' WHAT IS IT TO BE A CHRISTIAN ? Nothing is more characteristic of Christianity than the fact that after two thousand years one cannot find two Christians who will define Chris tianity in the same terms. 60 far from being a reproach, this is a testimony to the religion found ed in the person of Jesus, the Messiah. It sug gests that it is the religion not only for all men, but for every man which is far better; and, moreover, that it is a religion of the soul, not of the priest or church or tribe. Christianity is in deed the Truth that makes men free. We have for some time endeavored to form a statement of Christianity; and upon reading a dozen definitions recently the impulse was brought to a point. That we submit our statement with out purpose of imposing it upon any one, is made clear by the foregoing paragraph; and that we are not presuming to do 00 pretentious a thing as may now appear will be perceived by the reader as he proceeds. Our one purpose is to provoke each one who may think on this matter to con sider the subject and endeavor to form a state ment of his own views. Upon such a matter one cannot afford to suffer a vague and incomprehen sible aggregation of impressions to take hold on him. First, then, Christianity is Christ. It is the religion of a person of a life lived before the eyes of men. In the Christian it is not mere be lief. Thousands that are not Christiana believe. It is not good works. It is not worship. It is not a theory of God. It is not an attitude toward God. It is all these because it is Christ. It is Christ in the Christian, and therefore, that belief that is swallowed up in the incomparably larger relation -faith f therefore, good Work i, therefore worship; therefore God as Love and God as Father. It is not to follow Christ. To follow Him may be a mere form, even as the Roman Catholics follow Him in the Mass. Judas followed Him as con stantly as the others, but Judas was none of Christ's. It is not to imitate Him. To imitate Him may be a work of mere Pharisaism. They imitated Moses and the Prophets to the letter. That is only a superficial matter. Mr. Sheldon's book, "In His Steps," quickened the worlds' heart in respect to imitating Christ. Its dominant theme was "What WTould Jesus Do?" That is, to be sure, a high standard of living; but there is a more fundamental attitude. When Mr. Sheldon and Dr. Meyer came across the Atlantic together a newspaper remarked that one represented the Imitation of Jesus as the Christian Life; the other represented the Appropriation of Jesus as the Christian Life. We regard the Appropriation of Jesus as the true Christian religion. This is the miracle of Christianity the one supreme mark of its divinity: It puts God in men to make them God-like. Christianity is not an imitation; it is an incarnation. It began in the incarnation of God in Jesus the Christ; and Christ incarnates Himself and God in the Chris tian. This is the meaning of the mystery of re generation. It is no mere conversion of a man the turning away from evil, the looking upward. It is no acceptance of a theory or philosophy of living. It is a re-birth, an incarnation, the birth of the soul into the divine, the coming in of God, the advent of a new Life that shall last in glory now and forever. This accords with the parable of the vine, I am the Vine; yo are the branches. The life of the branches is the life received or appropriated from the Vine. It explains the mystery of that passage in the sublime prayer of Jesus just before His betrayal: That they all mfay be pne, even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they may also be in us. And the glory which Thou hast given me I have given unto them ; that they may be one even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfected into one." The last words of that prayer are, "I in them." This also explains the Communion. In partaking of the bread and wine we appropriate Jesus. We do not think the analogy is carried too far, if we hold that, although the bread is but bread, the supper is meant to carry directly the process of receiving Jesus. It is at least the monument to the Christian's appropriation and incarnation of Christ, and surely it is a means also. In no life is this conception of Christianity so highly marked as in Paul's. For me to live is Christ. No longer I live, but Christ. His letters abound with this thought; and his marvellous achievements despite a world of obstacles cannot in any other way be accounted for. This conception answers for the Christian's triumph. He triumphs in Christ. Christ's victory over sin is his victory. Christ's victory over death is his victory. We are immortal not because we are men but because God is in us. When we cease to be men, in the inevitable process of death, we shall continue to live because That is in us over which death has no power. Let a man take this conception to heart. Let him face the world with the assurance that God is in Him; that his life is Christ's life; that he may and should daily appropriate Christ, and, daring thought, that he is an incarnation of Jesus. and surely life will take on that glory of which it is said, Christ in you the hope of glory. Such a man will be a good man ; such a man will be a brave man; such a man will have fear of no tem poral event; whether of powers or principalities, or life or death, or things past, present or to come. Such a man will move out into his career not reckoning upon a day, not for the things of the years of body, but in the presence of and with a view to the invisible things that are eternal. Upon such a man everlasting life and its Time conquering glory has already dawned, and in the brightness of that light no earthly cloud can he seen. This it is to be a Christian! But who, one may ask, is sufficient for these things? Again here is the explanation of a mys tery. No man is sufficient. But Christ in you is. MR. EDWARD INGLE'S ATTITUDE. To the Editor of the Biblical Recorder : Permit me to thank you for your generous esti mate of my conduct in the discussion of the Southern Education movement, though your point of view is different and though you do not know me. If this campaign could be discussed solely upon its merits and without regard to the person alities of those engaged in it, or if those engaged in it could be considered, not according to their reputation among their friends, but aocording to the equipment revealed by them for the conduct of a propaganda for right education in the South, there would be hope for a right conclusion of the whole matter. But, the defense of the move ment seems to bank either upon an iteration of the statement that this or that person could not possibly be connected with the campaign if it were not the best thing for the South, or upon efforts through personal letters to newspapers or to friends connected with newspapers to choke off adverse criticism of the undertaking. Careful students of this movement are likely to agree with your contention, "that the Southern men on these boards are not prepared to represent either elementary popular education or higher vol untary education," without reflecting for a mo ment upon their honesty of purpose or their sin cere effort to do what they think best for the South. . But Southern men of best intention have made grievous mistakes before this. You write that my "general attitude is that the South is all right." There you are mistaken. ' My attitude is that the South is not all right and that it will never be all right as long as it permits outside interference of any kind and from any motive with its handling of its social problems. The last forty years of that sort of thing ' are enough to warn the South forever against it and would be enough to shame into inaction those who would interfere, except that theirs is a spirit which if it may not prevail by one means is ever ready to invent another. Opposition to this movement will not cease with next week's conference of propaganda at Rich mond. The movement has still before it available for "campaign" or other purposes, $100,000 a year for eight or nine years. Therefore, it will last eight or nine years longer and just so much longer will the opposition continue, provided my health continues. EDWARD INGLE.; Baltimore, April 18, 1903. A POLITICAL CREED FOR CHRISTIANS. : Surely there are enough organizations in our land; so many indeed that we need nothing so much as organization of the organizations. Last week we received the literature of a new one that has this purpose. We do not propose to en dorse this new candidate for members, called The Christian Conquest Movement, but we submit here its "creed" because it is a good one to think upon and particularly timely: I believe that human governments are ordained of God, are bound in all their acts by His law, are essential to human welfare and are, therefore, to be loyally upheld. I believe that Christ's law, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," binds' me to the in telligent and faithful performance of my full duty as a citizen. " T Koliovo iViot Vin-f 1iiT7 5n1iiJa fVio f nllmwiTlc The payment of all taxes justly assessed against me. The study of the questions to be decided at the polls. The knowledge of the several political districts in which I reside, and the records of the several candidates. To register and vote, and to exert a positive influence at every general and primary election, so far as I may, for the triumph of righteous men and measures. To take an active interest in public affairs and in my Country's history and welfare.' Thus believing, everywhere and always, the first affections of my heart and the first labor of my hands, next to that due to Christ's world-wide kingdom, shall be my Country's. HIS DIFFICULTY. "I try to keep my faith from breaking down," but it ain't easy. The Lord hasn't acted with me as I expected Him to do." "Oh, but you can't make a contract wi' Him as if He was a carpenter," Jonas argued. "You can't say, If you does a given job in a given time, I'll own up as you're not a raskill. That ain't religion." From King's In The Garden of Char ity (Harper's). LIKE THE STARS. It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or woman of the humblest sort can real ly be strong, gentle, pure and good without the world being better for it, without somebody be ing helped and comforted by the existence of that goodness. Phillips Brooks. WHERE THOU LEADEST. O'er vale or mountain height My feet shall follow, howsoever drear Or dark or lone my earthly path appear, If I but feel my feeble hand in Thine, , Behold Thy face, and hear Thy voice divine, Life's darkest landscape shall before me shine With glorious light. , -J. Richardson Parke7
The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, N.C.)
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April 22, 1903, edition 1
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